All Quiet On The Eastern Front? – New Framework of (Digital) Media Capture in Eastern Europe
by Marko Milosavljević, Faculty of Scoial Sciences at University of Ljubljana
Digital Digital transformations and innovations have disrupted traditional media business models.Digital media has have led to disruptions of media business models, changed theing role of traditional media by,increasing increasing the influence role of 'new' (particularly social) media, and shifting shifting the relationships between media professionals, owners, civil society, the economy, and politics.
In Eastern Europe, which has in the last quarter of a century witnessed seismic political and social changes in the last quarter of a century, so these digital disruptions play particular rolea distinct role in the region. They were lLess radical as in somethan the protests of the so-called Arab Spring in some Middle Eastern and Mediterranean countries,digital disruptions that were part of the so-called Arab Spring, but still they to a certain extentaffect the problem of media capture in these countries as they challengedthe traditional gatekeepers such as public or and state broadcasters, harm r, the relationships between politicians and domestic media owners, andincreasepolitical influence on the news, andorboost censorship.
In Eastern Europe, As such, they have also affected the problem of media capture in these countries.
mMedia capture in its traditional sense, has been in Eastern Europe challenged by global players,on one hand and new start-ups and and new roles of citizens (»people formerly known as audience«, as defined by Rosen). [GP1]However, the questions remains whether 'traditional' patterns of media capture have been successfully successfully challenged, and whether we are witnessing an in-depth transformation of roles and patterns, or if the media capture in Eastern Europe has merely received new clothes[GP2].
Thise chapter will analyze key characteristics and the specifics of media capture in Eastern Europe—, as a region with a less of a traditional commitment to a free media—asas compared to the U.S. or Western Europe. The chapter will identify key (new) models of relationships between the owners, politics, the economy, and professionals in theis region. These models will be evaluated, within the wider context of the intersection of economic conditions (which are weaker thant in the U.S. and Western Europe), political cultures (whichthat represent polarized pluralism), and journalistic cultures (that don't share the Western objective tradition, but rather, areis often based on partisanship). Particular focus will be placed on transparency, the influence of foreign owners, and the influence of EU policy and standards.
[GP1]I am unclear as to what he is trying to say here.
[GP2]I see what he is trying to say here, but I wonder if there's a different way to put it. A makeover? A new facade?